"Crime" doesn't pay for Keanu Reeves in spoof

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Combining a backstage theatrical romance and a drama about a bank robbery into one spoof might have seemed a good idea at the time, but while Malcolm Venville's "Henry's Crime" is billed as a comedy it's more funny odd than funny ha-ha.

Keanu Reeves, who also was active in getting the picture made, has the central role of a man convicted of a robbery he had no part in who decides to make up for the time in jail by now committing the crime.

Reeves plays the part, however, as a blank canvas, and while some of the deliberately contrived elements of the combined plotlines are amusing, it becomes increasingly silly rather than gaining the laughs it seeks.

Cross-cutting between Reeves dashing back and forth from a performance of Chekhov onstage and bank robbers digging a tunnel to a vault below is clearly intended to be hilarious, but it just seems awkward. It will take very clear marketing to keep audiences from being confused by the film's intentions. Even that might not be enough despite entertaining performances by Vera Farmiga, as Reeves' leading lady onstage, and James Caan, as his main buddy in the bank raid. The film screened at the recent Toronto festival.

The setup is that hapless Henry (Reeves), who has a drab marriage to Debbie (Judy Greer) and a drearier job as a tollbooth collector, finds himself bullied off to a baseball game by sometime pals Eddie (Fisher Stevens) and Joe (Danny Hoch). But there is no baseball game.

Instead, Eddie and Joe rob a bank at gunpoint, leaving Henry to wait in his car, which has now become the getaway vehicle. The robbery goes sour, bank guard Frank (Bill Duke) collars the stupefied Henry, and he is promptly sent to jail.

After serving his time, he sets out to rob the bank for real and, through a series of what are supposed to be funny coincidences, discovers not only how to break into it but also a cover for his activities.

The cover comes from joining a down-at-the-heels theatrical troupe in a production of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" starring a beauty named Julie Ivanova (Farmiga) he meets cute when she runs him over with her car.
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